“Are your legs alright?”

“Yes, I can walk without trouble.”

The Police Force Commander didn’t answer anything except questions about where they were going. He only showed concern. Daphne gritted through the pain and kept walking.

The prison seemed to be quite deep underground. It took considerable time just to climb out of the prison stairs.

Finally, when blinding light struck her vision for the first time in days.

“My lady!”

Daphne lost consciousness once more.

* * *

When she opened her eyes again, what Daphne faced wasn’t the ceiling of the duke’s estate but a different ceiling.

A delicately decorated golden ceiling. When light hit it, each angular edge sparkled, creating the illusion of countless twinkling stars.

Daphne recalled that she was at the Second Prince’s palace.

‘Even a powerless royal is still a royal, I suppose.’

Though the Second Prince’s influence in noble society fell short of the First Prince’s, he had been rapidly rising since recently returning as a war hero with the empire’s citizens’ support.

The Second Prince’s palace was splendid enough to seem ostentatious, befitting his recently elevated status.

But it didn’t feel as gaudy as the First Prince’s. Splendid, yet with its own sense of order within. Daphne tried to recall memories of visiting the First Prince’s palace with Duke Seyfried before.

Come to think of it, Astaire…

“You’re awake?”

Just then, Second Prince Phaios approached Daphne carrying a tray. He set down the tray with a wet towel on it and rushed to Daphne.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“You were dripping with cold sweat.”

“Ah…”

Her body still wasn’t well, it seemed. Daphne hoped Phaios wouldn’t ask why her body was unwell.

“As expected, your husband…”

No, it was a ridiculous hope to begin with. Surely someone other than Maria at the duke’s estate was informing the Second Prince about her. It wouldn’t be strange if the prince knew she had been confined by Astaire.

Phaios looked like he had much to say.

“What’s happened to His Grace right now?”

“Even in this situation, you worry about that bastard…”

Phaios sighed in frustration. As he clenched his fist like he was suppressing anger, Daphne wanted to object.

Despite appearances, Astaire had tried in his own way to protect her. She knew his words about returning weren’t empty.

Still, after spending years together, she couldn’t help but worry about his wellbeing.

It was separate from the emotions of hating, despising, and loving him.

Just compassion felt between one human and another.

“You don’t need to worry about Duke Seyfried. Because he…”

Phaios stopped mid-sentence. He seemed to have more to say but looked like he couldn’t speak for some reason.

Was there something more she didn’t know?

Daphne felt confused for a moment.

“No need to worry about it.”

Her mind tangled like a complicated ball of thread. Perhaps that’s why a headache arose.

“Does it hurt badly?”

Seeing her, Phaios quickly prepared medicine.

“Thank you.”

At her courteous attitude, Phaios smiled somewhat wistfully.

“Daphne, this is my palace.”

“Yes, I know. Your Highness the Second Prince.”

“You don’t need to keep calling me Your Highness the Second Prince.”

“Then what should I call you?”

This time it was Phaios who was at a loss for words.

“Well…”

The man showed contemplative eyes.

“If I asked you to call me by name, that would just be my own greed.”

Phaios muttered very quietly in a low voice. Daphne clearly heard it. But she deliberately pretended not to.

Calling the Second Prince by name alone would be absurd. That was true even in the Second Prince’s palace. You never knew when or where eyes and ears might be watching and listening.

“Has there been any news from Duke Seyfried’s estate?”

“Don’t worry too much about that either. I heard the head butler and aide are taking good care of the estate’s situation.”

An unprecedented situation had occurred where both the duke and duchess were absent.

Daphne recalled what Astaire had told her before.

When the previous duke suddenly passed away, his relatives even sent assassins after Astaire, the duke’s only direct descendant.

This really wasn’t the time for this.

The Seyfried ducal family without its master was just tasty prey to someone.

At least Daphne, even if she left Astaire, didn’t want him to lose the family he had cultivated his entire life.

Daphne sat up abruptly.

“I think I should go. There’s no one at the Seyfried ducal family.”

“But surely the duke’s close associates…”

“Them handling Duke Seyfried’s affairs and me, as the duchess, handling Duke Seyfried’s affairs are different things.”

Her head hurt and she was still starving, her stomach seemingly stuck to her back, but this wasn’t the time to lie around wasting time.

“Thank you, Your Highness the Second Prince.”

The Second Prince looked at Daphne expressing gratitude with a complicated expression.

* * *

At the same time.

Astaire had been sitting in an interrogation room surrounded by cold walls on all sides for four hours already.

In the middle of the room sat a metal table, and the faint ceiling light reflected on it added to the chill.

Even the chair looked cold and hard, uncomfortable to sit in.

Yet Duke Astaire Seyfried had maintained an upright posture for four hours.

Even the imperial palace investigators interrogating Duke Seyfried were clicking their tongues behind his back at how tough he was.

“How long do you think you can hold out, Duke Seyfried?”

Astaire gave no answer, said nothing. He had been exercising his right to remain silent for four hours already.

The investigator felt like he would die of frustration.

The investigator bribed by the First Prince was afraid of just listening to Astaire’s breathing before ending the investigation and getting slapped by the First Prince.

Meanwhile, Daphne wanted to return to the duke’s estate but couldn’t take a single step outside the Second Prince’s palace.

Only after hearing the Second Prince’s explanation of the situation did Daphne reluctantly give up.

“Right now, you should still be locked in the First Prince’s palace prison. You were temporarily pardoned by His Majesty the Emperor’s special order.”

“His Majesty the Emperor’s… special order?”

Daphne asked back in shock.

Phaios looked like he’d made a mistake. Like he’d said something he didn’t need to say.

“It’s difficult to explain that far, but anyway, you were released on the condition of not leaving the imperial palace.”

“From the investigators’ perspective, there’s a risk I might flee outside the Avont Empire.”

“That’s right.”

Daphne smiled bitterly. Then somewhere in this imperial palace, massive enough to equal ten decent estates combined, Astaire must also be staying.

“Don’t worry too much about Astaire.”

Phaios spoke almost assertively, so Daphne nearly asked why.

“Because behind him is someone other than me.”

Who exactly was there?

The First Prince could no longer be Astaire’s backer. He had become Astaire’s enemy, pointing a blade at him.

The Second Prince was helping her, but it didn’t seem like he was helping Astaire as well.

If not the princes, then who exactly…

There was only one answer.

Daphne was so shocked she looked at Phaios with disbelieving eyes.

Phaios nodded like what she was thinking was correct.

“That’s right, Daphne.”

The Emperor of the Avont Empire.

The one once called the ‘Iron-Blooded Emperor’ had become Astaire’s backer.

Just then.

Maids came urgently looking for Phaios.

“What is it? I said not to disturb me.”

“Well, that is…”

The maid looked at Daphne with Phaios with a troubled expression.

Daphne instinctively sensed it. She had a feeling what the maid had to say was related to her.

When the maid whispered something in Phaios’s ear, the Second Prince’s face hardened and turned ashen in an instant.

“I understand, tell them I’ll prepare.”

“Yes.”

The maid soon disappeared. Phaios let out a sigh tinged with complexity.

“What’s wrong, Your Highness the Second Prince?”

“They say a trial will be held soon.”

It went without saying whose trial it was.

Daphne swallowed quietly in tension. Yet Phaios couldn’t easily speak, looking at Daphne with complicated eyes.

“Daphne, you have to participate too.”

“What?”

It was sudden, but thinking about it, it was natural.

“I wanted to delay your attendance somehow, but it wasn’t easy.”

“No. If I have to attend anyway, I should go.”

Daphne wiped her sweat-soaked face with a wet towel nearby. Then looking in the mirror, she swept her disheveled hair behind her ears.

Phaios still looked at Daphne with a complex expression.

* * *

That’s how Daphne saw Astaire for the first time in days at the courtroom.

The Astaire she saw again looked more haggard than when she’d last seen him. He’d lost weight, and his once-dazzling golden hair had faded in color.

But his eyes were sharper than before. Like a well-honed blade.

Even First Prince Carlos flinched momentarily seeing him.

Daphne sat with Astaire in the defendant’s seat as the Seyfried ducal couple.

And Carlos sat across from them. Piles of documents were stacked, seemingly fully prepared to assert charges against the Seyfried ducal couple and present evidence.

Daphne wondered how many of those documents were truthful. She believed it was fewer than five.

There was no way Astaire would fail to cover his tracks enough for evidence to be revealed.

“His Majesty the Emperor is taking his seat!”

An attendant shouted while opening the door.

The Emperor who would preside over today’s judgment entered the courtroom.

By custom, crimes of high nobles above count rank were handled by the Emperor acting as judge, examining cases and issuing verdicts.

The Emperor seemed much healthier, unbelievably so for someone who had been secluded in the palace for so long.

Sharp eyes alternately gazed at Astaire and Daphne.

“Don’t be nervous.”

Under the desk, Astaire took Daphne’s hand.

Though his face was badly damaged, his warm hand remained the same.

Somehow that fact felt unfamiliar, and emotions welled up inside Daphne.

Why is your face so damaged?

What did they do to you?

In truth, she had so much she wanted to say to Astaire, but she had to swallow it all.

“We will now try Duke and Duchess Seyfried for embezzlement of the imperial treasury and leaking confidential information.”

The Avont Empire Emperor’s declaration fell.

The trial began with the Emperor striking his gavel.

Daphne sat quietly with her head bowed.

First Prince Carlos, who had accused the ducal couple, stood from his seat and spoke.

“Duke Seyfried used internal imperial information obtained while assisting me, Carlos di Blanterian Avont, to help his trading company gain private profits. The total damages amount to 15 million derks.”